Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina and Eminent North Carolinians

"Here lie a Hillman and a Swain,
Their lot let no man choose
They lived in sin and died in pain,
And the devil has his Dews."

Those who are familiar with
the playful and happy turn of thought and expression which distinguish the
lighter writings of Washington Irving will not be surprised to learn that Mr.
Dodge is his nephew.

The next and last college
genius to whom I shall call your attention was the late Gen. James Johnston
Pettigrew. Born in the County of Tyrrell, he was prepared for college at the
celebrated school of William J. Bingham, a son of the Rev. William Bingham
already mentioned, and entered the Freshman class here in the year 1843. His
whole college course was a continued series of literary triumphs. In a class
containing many members of more than ordinary talents he was among the best, if
not the very best, in all his studies; but mathematics was his speciality. In
that he was far ahead of all his classmates. I well remember being present at
the examination of the class on Astronomy, when the learned Professor, after
having worried several members by putting questions which they could not answer,
called up Mr Pettigrew. As he did so one of the class, in a whisper loud enough
to be heard half across the room, said, "You can't stick him," and sure enough
he couldn't. After taking the Bachelor's degree, and after a short term of
service n the Naval Observatory in Washington city, he selected the Law as his
profession, and went to Europe to perfect himself in that department of it
called the civil law. On his return he settled in Charleston and became
connected in practice with his distinguished relative, the late Hon. James L.
Petigru, who was perhaps the ablest and most profound lawyer in South Carolina.
During his brief residence there he became one of the representatives of the
city in the Legislature of the State. While a member of that body he greatly
distinguished himself by sending in from a committee a minority report against a
scheme then proposed for taking steps towards the reopening of the slave trade.
He himself constituted the minority, and his report was so profound in its
views, and so convincing in its arguments, that the proposed measure failed to
secure the sanction of the Legislature, though strongly urged in a report agreed
upon by all the other members of the committee.

When the war broke out
between the North and the South he espoused the cause of his section of the
country. After some service at Charleston he came to this State, was elected
Colonel of one of its regiments and was afterwards promoted to the rank of
Major-General. Of his merits as a soldier and an officer it is unnecessary for
me now to speak. His untimely death, in a slight skirmish near the banks of the
Potomac during General Lee's retreat from Pennsylvania, caused his friends and
his country to deplore an event which extinguished the light of his genius long
ere it had attained its meridian splendor.

My young friends, my task is
done and no one can feel more sensibly than myself how imperfectly it has been
accomplished. No one can know more fully than myself how difficult it has been
to withdraw my thoughts from the unhappy condition of our country and apply them
to the work of attempting to prepare an offering worthy of your acceptance.

In the commencement of my
address I had occasion to refer to the low condition to which the war had
suddenly reduced our beloved University. Its declension was as great as it was
sudden. Before the war it had attained, in a very few years, a height of
prosperity of which scarcely a parallel can be found in any country. In the
extent and variety of its studies, the number and ability of its instructors and
the number of its students, it surpassed nearly all similar institutions in our
own section of the